Hollow core optical fiber is a powerful technology platform offering breakthrough performance improvements in sensing, communications, higher-power optical pulse delivery, and the like. Indeed, inasmuch as its latency is almost equal to the propagation of an optical wave in a vacuum, the hollow core optical fiber offers an attractive solution for data centers, high-frequency stock trading communication links, distributed computing environments, high performance computing, etc. In the stock trading application, for example, the hollow core optical fiber is contemplated as allowing for decreased data transmission times between trading computers, enabling trading programs to complete programmed trading transactions more quickly.
While there has been much progress on developing hollow core fibers capable of meeting stringent low latency requirements, the field deployment of such fibers has been found to be compromised by multipath interference (MPI), which is caused by the fact that hollow core fiber is intrinsically multimode. Moreover, since the index of refraction of the higher-order modes (HOMs) and surface modes are significantly different that the index of refraction of air, these HOMs are affected differently by perturbations within the fiber (and are therefore a source of MPI). The presence of MPI results in power fluctuations that render the transmitted signal unrecoverable. Indeed, it is been found that the act of “cabling” such fibers (“cabling” referring to the fabrication process of covering the fiber (or collection of fibers) within multiple layers of protective material) introduces (at times) catastrophic degradation. It appears that one or more failure mechanisms is related to perturbations impressed on the fiber by the cable structure itself.
Thus, a need remains in the art for providing a combination of hollow core optical and suitable cable structure that does not degrade signal transmission due to signal interference effects. More particularly, a need remains to provide a hollow core optical fiber cable assembly that minimizes the presence of MPI along the individual hollow core optical fibers.